And speak of the devil, lo and behold! I've now received my rejection. (Since it was accompanied by kind and complimentary words from Geoff Ryman, though, I'm rather more pleased about it than otherwise.)
I'm going to run the story through another tighten-and-polish, and then start sending it out to regular venues. I think Interzone's one-month email-submissions window has closed, but I may pay the postage to send it across the water anyway.
As for the holiday-cheer thing, I didn't mean to be confusing. As I suppose must also be the case in Great Britain, it's just that lots of people aren't Christian and so don't actually celebrate Christmas -- and since hearing repeated Christmas greetings when you're Jewish (like me), or Hindu or Buddhist or Muslim (like many of my friends and neighbors), can get a little tiresome, that's why people prefer the generic "happy holidays," I think.
(There are Americans who get really pissy about that, but I think they're confused about the concept: the idea isn't that no one is supposed to have a merry Christmas; the idea is just that, despite the fact that the malls and radio and TV are inundated with a tidal wave of commercialized Christmas imagery, it still might be polite to bear in mind that one's neighbor possibly doesn't actually share one's religious beliefs. It's more about assumptions than anything else, I think.)
Anyway, we do all have time off work and school (though that's another thorny issue, come to think of it), and we also all have a holiday for New Year's Day, so I think "happy holidays" or "season's greetings" or "Happy New Year!" should work well for anyone.
(Actually, I don't think there's anyone in this country who doesn't consider January 1st a new year, even if they also celebrate another cultural new year at another time. I mean we all are on the Gregorian calendar.)